Noise came from the entrance of my tiny cell. The door slid open and a woman in a dress the color of pomegranates stood there. She was older than my mom, maybe around fifty years old. Her dark-blond hair was gathered into a simple ponytail at the nape of her neck, and she wore a brooch of a diadem with lilies on either side of it. It was so unique and beautiful. I was mesmerized, at least until her head tilted eerily as she regarded me with unrestrained curiosity.

I scrambled up off the bed and stood in the corner of the room, my eyes never leaving her.

She hit a button on the keypad outside the room and the door closed. The two of us were now alone in the claustrophobic cell. My anxiety grew as she paced around the secluded area, pausing every now and then to eye me warily. I asked bravely, “What do you want?”

“Not what I want. What the Faction wants,” she answered.

“What Faction?”

To my horror, she burst into hysterical laughter. I wasn’t sure this woman was in her right mind. I gazed wistfully at the door, wondering if the guards had heard her and would come to take her away. “Oh, you really are clueless, aren’t you, little Awakened one? Never safe, no chance to run.” She paused, her twisted smile fading. “I’ll die here.”

“We’re safe here,” I spat out, trying to reassure her and curb her insanity. “The Court Guards won’t let anything happen to you.”

“No place is safe.” The woman fiddled with her fingers anxiously, cold sweat dripping off her forehead. “Once those stupid Myrmidons learn that the inevitable cannot be avoided, that keeping the secret child alive and hidden all these years was for nothing, it will cause a distraction. Enough to grab the file from the archives and run.” She let out a lamenting sigh, “Oh! It was supposed to be easy. You weren’t supposed to be in here!” She raised her hand and I cowered, thinking she was going to hit me. Instead, she slapped her own face, hard.

She raised her hand to do it again, and I jumped in front of her, catching her wrist. “Stop! Hitting yourself won’t do anything.”

Terror overtook her eyes. “She will find me,” the woman croaked. “She will find me, for I have failed her. She will have me tortured.”

“Hey, hey.” I inched closer to her, maintaining a safe distance while calming her down by rubbing her shoulder. “Listen, I get that it sucks to be in jail, but they follow the law here. Torture is illegal. Not even the queen could hurt you.”